Middlesex’s Devine cracks 2,000 point mark, Francisco sets Monroe scoring record, and five of eight lower seeds win in GMCT First Round

The Greater Middlesex Conference basketball tournament has its girls’ quarterfinals set, as the three top seeds – St. Thomas Aquinas, Monroe and Middlesex, in order – were the only higher seeds to win in round of 16 action on Wednesday night.

We’ve got recaps on all eight games, followed by the schedule for this Saturday’s GMCT girls’ quarterfinals, which will be held at Spotswood High School.

WEDNESDAY GMC TOURNAMENT GIRLS’ RESULTS – 1ST ROUND:

(1) St. Thomas Aquinas def. (16) North Brunswick, 94-42: Trista Whitney scored 17 points to lead the Trojans (19-6) into the GMC Tournament quarterfinals for the eleventh straight time, the longest such active streak in the county. Kayla Navarro added 14, Lauryn Downing chipped in 13, and Jordan Barnes scored 11 in the win. St. Thomas came out of the game hot, taking a 28-2 lead after one quarter of play. The Raiders fell to 8-14 with the loss. Aquinas will play 9th-seed Carteret (16-6) in Saturday’s quarterfinals at Spotswood.
(9) Carteret def. (8) Calvary Christian, 54-29: Anilah Diggs and Jahaysia Ledesman each scored 15 points, while Ivanni Villegas added 13 for the the Ramblers (16-6). It was a tight one at the half, with Calvary up 18-15, but Carteret exploded in the second half, outscoring their opponent 23-11 in the third, and holding them scoreless in the fourth. Next up, the Ramblers play top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas (19-6) in Saturday’s quarterfinals at Spotswood.
(12) Old Bridge def. (5) East Brunswick, 47-45: The Knights – who’d lost twice this season to the Bears by 23 the first time, and 21 in the rematch – found the third time was the charm. Old Bridge (11-12) led 25-18 at the half, but gave up the lead in the third quarter, trailing 36-32 heading into the final eight minutes, but they stormed back and hung on for the win over the Bears (12-11). Scroll down to the end of this section to hear Knights’ head coach Alec Alspach talk about the win. Old Bridge will face 13-seed North Plainfield (7-16) Saturday – which they split with this season – in the quarterfinals at Spotswood.
(13) North Plainfield def. (4) Spotswood, 46-44: The Canucks (7-16) pulled off the late upset in Spotswood (17-7) for their second straight win after losing eight-in-a-row heading into the GMC Tournament. Jordyn Patrick led with 15 points for North Plainfield, while the Chargers’ Gabrielle Hill tied her for game-high honors with 15 in defeat. North trailed 33-27 heading into the fourth, and still by six with 40-seconds to go, but hit shots down the stretch to come up with a win earns the Canucks a trip right back to Spotswood Saturday for the quarterfinals, where they’ll face 12-seed Old Bridge (11-12).
(3) Middlesex def. (14) Colonia, 46-42: Jess Devine scored 22 points and passed the 2,000 point mark for her career early in the win for the Blue Jays (18-6). She now has 2,021 points for all-time. Hailey Conklin had 12 in defeat for Colonia (6-18), which hung in there, down by only eight heading into the fourth quarter. The win puts Middlesex up against 11-seed Piscataway (11-9) in Saturday’s quarterfinals at Spotswood.
(11) Piscataway def. (6) South Brunswick, 49-45: The Chiefs (11-9) avenged two earlier defeats this season at the hands of South Brunswick (11-11) thanks to 14 points from Caelyn Cook, and a mammoth game on the boards for Alyssa Iduh, who had 22 rebounds. Avery Jenne had 16 for the Vikings in defeat. Piscataway had to rally from a 22-13 halftime deficit, and did so with a big third quarter, nearly doubling up South Brunswick, 25-13 to take a 38-35 lead into the fourth quarter. The Chiefs will play third-seed Middlesex (18-6) at Spotswood in Saturday’s quarterfinals.
(10) Edison def. (7) Metuchen, 47-36: Three players for the Eagles (15-9) scored in double figures, led by Susan Oshinski with 11, while Carmela Arana and Olivia Smart added ten apiece. Edison led the Bulldogs (18-4) most of the way, including 22-16 at the half. The Eagles move on to play second-seed Monroe (15-7) Saturday in the quarterfinals at Spotswood.
(2) Monroe def. (15) South Plainfield, 46-36: Senior Evangelina Francisco’s 18 points helped make her the all-time leading scorer in girls’ history at the school, giving her 1,203 in her career, passing Madison Carey, who played from 2017 through 2020 and finished with 1,195. The Falcons (15-7) had a slim two-point halftime lead, and led by three after three, but pulled away in the fourth, holding the Tigers (14-9) to just five points. Monroe will take on Edison in Saturday’s semifinals at Spotswood.

Click below to hear Old Bridge head coach Alex Alspach talk about the Knights’ win over East Brunswick in the GMC Tournament first round:

SATURDAY GMC TOURNAMENT GIRLS’ QUARTERFINAL SCHEDULE

Note that while the girls’ times are set, boys’ game times may not follow the same pattern in the bracket as the girls. GMC Tournament Co-Director Mike DelAversano says boys’ times will be adjusted so that any boys’ and girls’ teams from the same school wouldn’t play at the same time at different sites. The girls’ quarterfinals will be at Spotswood, with the boys at Piscataway. We’ll have Saturday’s boys’ schedule as soon as we get it from tournament officials.